Textual Construction of Space in the Writing of Renaissance Women: "In" Habiting Place

This book examines complex constructions of social space in the texts of four Renaissance women. In the rapidly transforming social space of 16th and early 17th century England, Isabella Whitney, Aemilia Lanyer, Elizabeth Hoby Russell and Margaret Hoby created alternative spatial narratives that participated in, as well as challenged, the influential forces of their changing environment. These forces included the elevation of linear perspective, mathematical advances, and developing concepts of private ownership of property. Amidst these developments the women discussed offered alternative constructions of social spaces through their texts that directly confronted the many social restrictions women faced in contemporary life. This work places the texts examined within a theoretically informed discussion of the social spaces of Renaissance England, both physical and imagined. It challenges many ideas concerning a “woman’s place” offering instead a more complete and complex account of the spaces and places lived and imagined by Renaissance women.